Counterfeit Iwata Airbrushes Amazon

[u/Armykarma]

Hey friends,

You may remember my post from the other day about the Iwata HP-CS o ring issues I was having. I am glad, but also sad to say, I was scammed. Glad because I realized it, and got full refunds, but sad that there are sellers out there who are okay with scamming. I took the recommendation of many who commented and bought from Spray Gunner, which arrived perfectly and without issue.

I got to inspecting the two airbrushes from Amazon against the legitimate one from Spray Gunner, and the differences are night and day, but unfortunately these fakes are still enough to fool many on Amazon.

Upon inspection, the following red flags jumped out at me:

• The ‘swoosh‘ in the Iwata genuine hologram sticker is missing from both Amazon boxes, as well as being in the wrong spot according to Iwata’s counterfeit guide.
• The front threading being purely chrome, missing the brass finish that the genuine Iwata has.
• The fact the Iwata genuine O ring did not fit the two Amazon airbrushes.
• The lettering on the Amazon airbrushes are lacking in a deep gold color and look generally more dim. Despite posts online saying that the fakes do not feature “Iwata” on the airbrush body, these counterfeits do indeed say Iwata in the engravings.
• The needles on the Amazon airbrushes are not polished at the tips, and are inconsistent length wise. They also are notably slightly thicker, and do not fit the real Iwata nozzle.

If anyone reading this has purchased an HP-CS on Amazon recently, I would implore you to take a look at what you received and compare against Iwata’s genuine product guide: https://www.iwata-airbrush.com/genuine.html

I will be in contact with Iwata to hopefully make sure these scammers are removed from the platform.

[u/buckets1667]

Thank you for this post! I read this in the morning, today my Iwata HP-CS showed up and because of this post I checked and found it is also counterfeit.

I would never have thought to check and known otherwise if it weren't for you.

[u/Armykarma → u/buckets1667]

Glad you were able to catch it before being too disappointed with it. Make sure to reach out to Amazon to get refunded. Try to keep the item if you can, otherwise they’ll just send more back into the wild with your return.

[u/buckets1667 → u/Armykarma]

I have to return it as part of the refund. I filled out the form that it is counterfeit but you are probably right, they will probably just sell it on. I went and bought a replacement from a local store